Chapter EI — Species of Special Concern 



Wildlife Service and was looking forward to progress 

 in protecting and encouraging recovery of the species. 



Elarbor Porpoise 

 (Phocoena phocoena) 



The harbor porpoise, one of the smallest cetaceans, 

 occurs in coastal areas throughout most of the North- 

 em Hemisphere, including Europe, West Africa, the 

 Far East, and both coasts of North America. The 

 species' preference for nearshore waters makes it 

 particularly vulnerable to impacts from human activi- 

 ties, such as coastal fisheries and environmental 

 pollution. 



Substantial numbers of harbor porpoises are caught 

 and killed incidentally in domestic fisheries. These 

 include salmon gillnet fisheries off Alaska and Wash- 

 ington; groundfish fisheries in the Bering Sea and 

 Gulf of Alaska; shark and swordfish driftnet fisheries 

 off Washington, Oregon, and California; and set and 

 driftnet fisheries for halibut and other finfish off 

 central California. Harbor porpoises are also taken 

 incidentally in Canadian fisheries operating in waters 

 between Alaska and Washington, and these animals 

 may be from populations being affected by fisheries in 

 United States waters and vice versa. On the east coast 

 of North America, harbor porpoises are taken in the 

 groundfish gillnet fishery; in purse seine and weir 

 fisheries for Atlantic herring and mackerel; in shad 

 and sturgeon gillnet fisheries; and in trap and pot 

 fisheries in both U.S. and Canadian waters. 



Fisheries impacts on harbor porpoises occur 

 throughout their range. A 1990 report of the sub- 

 conmiittee on small cetaceans of the International 

 Whaling Commission's Scientific Committee noted 

 that incidental take of harbor porpoises may be a 

 problem wherever gillnet fisheries operate in close 

 proximity to harbor porpoises. It further noted that 

 the level of incidental take may be especially high in 

 the North and Baltic Seas. 



Until 1983, a large-scale Turkish commercial 

 fishery for harbor porpoises existed in the Black Sea. 

 Although no exact catch statistics exist, the Interna- 

 tional Whaling Commission estimates that between 



1976 and 1983, when the fishery was suspended, the 

 average annual take was between 34,000 and 44,000 

 animals. Fishermen claim that the Black Sea anchovy 

 fishery is declining due to competition from cetaceans, 

 and the Turkish Government is under great pressure 

 from the fishermen to reopen the cetacean fishery. 

 There are no reliable estimates of the number of 

 harbor porpoises inhabiting the Black Sea. 



As noted in the previous Annual Report, in July 

 1990 the Marine Mammal Commission contracted for 

 a review of abundance estimates of small cetaceans in 

 the Black Sea (see Appendix B, Buckland 1990). The 

 Commission supported the review in response to a 

 1990 presentation by researchers from the Karadeniz 

 Teknik University in Trapzon, Turkey, to the Inter- 

 national Whaling Commission in support of harvesting 

 small cetaceans in the Black Sea. The review, pub- 

 lished by the Commission in October 1990, examined 

 data on die abundance of three species of small 

 cetaceans in the Black Sea: harbor porpoise, bottle- 

 nose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), and common 

 dolphin (Delphinus delphis). The report concluded 

 that the most recent cetacean abundance estimates 

 submitted by the Turkish researchers are unreliable 

 for a number of reasons including, but not limited to, 

 extrapolating the survey data to an estimate of total 

 abundance based on invalid assumptions about the 

 species' distributions. The report recommended, 

 among other things, improving survey and analysis 

 methodologies and conducting regular surveys of the 

 entire sea. It further reconunended that, until such 

 improvements are made, current abundance estimates 

 should not be used as a basis for a harvest of Black 

 Sea cetaceans. 



The only currently active direct fishery for harbor 

 porpoises is a small fishery in Greenland, where the 

 porpoises are taken for local human consumption. 

 Annual catches since 1982 have been estimated at 

 between 700 and 1,000 animals, from a total estimat- 

 ed population of 10,000-15,000 animals. 



In North America, the impact of fisheries on 

 harbor porpoises appears to be particularly severe in 

 waters off the central coast of California and in the 

 Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundy. Between 1983 

 and 1986, for example, an estimated 755 harbor 

 porpoises were taken incidentally in the California set 



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